Friday, September 5, 2008

Washington state commission says assisted suicide group must ID donors

The Death With Dignity group that is operating the Washington State I-1000 assisted suicide initiative has thus far received $313,000 from the Compassion & Choices euthanasia lobby group in Oregon.

Compassion & Choices, formerly the Hemlock Society, has been the largest single donor to the Washington "Death with Dignity" campaign.

The Hemlock Society was founded by Derek Humphry.

Controversy has surrounded the donations by the Oregon euthanasia lobby group because the election laws in Washington State require a complete accounting of donors to a political campaign, including initiatives.

Compassion & Choices disclosed the sources for $123,380 in donations but refused to account for the balance of the donors based on the fact that they are an out-of-state political committee and thought that they were not required to report donations from people who had contributed less than $2500.

The commission voted 3-2 last week that the fund was required to provide a fuller accounting of where it gets its money that is spent on Initiative 1000.

The election commission has now levelled the playing field. The euthanasia lobby chose Washington State as the location to focus their national campaign for legalizing assisted suicide throughout the US.

Money from all over the US has poured into Washington State to convince Washington State voters that legalizing assisted suicide was in their interest.

The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has mainly been supported by citizens and groups from Washington State.